Today, I am reading and commenting on  Joshua 23-24.

When we read the account of Joshua’s farewell speech to the Israelites, we typically focus on the choice which Joshua gives them, and his decision on that same choice.  Those are good things for us to take to heart, because we have the same choice to make, but we often misstate what the choice is, or how we arrive at which options we have.  Actually, Joshua gives two speeches here.  It is not clear to me whether or not they were to different audiences, or, if perhaps, they were recorded by different people who were present and later compiled into the single account which is the Book of Joshua.

In any case, in both Joshua recounts the great things which God has done for the Israelites, things which he had witnessed (and which many of them had witnessed many of as well).  Then he tells them that they should faithfully obey the commands which God had given them.  If you are reading this, God has done great things to bring you to this point in your life, and He has probably done at least some of them in ways which you knew were Him blessing you as He did them, so, Joshua’s suggestion applies to you (and me) as well.  We should fear God, serve Him with all faithfulness, and destroy all other gods which we might be tempted to serve in His place.  However, if we think serving God is not desirable, we need to decide which set of gods we will serve instead.  Do we believe that if we serve the government, it will deliver a better life for us than what God will give us if we serve Him?  Will we be better off, if we just pick the right man, or woman, to be our ruler (or group of them to be our rulers)?  Or, maybe we will be better off if we spend our life in the pursuit of physical pleasures?  However, I agree with Joshua, as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Joshua 23-24.

Today’s passage describes events which took place after all of those described earlier in this book.  The Israelites have all found land to live upon in the land.  While they have not driven all of the non-Israelites out of the land, for the most part they have destroyed all of the non-Israelite political power bases and are living at peace. Joshua realized that he would not be around much longer to provide the Israelites with guidance, so he calls an assembly of the leadership of the people.  First, I want to note that Chapter 23 appears to be a summary of the assembly which Joshua called with Chapter 24 going into more detail.  First Joshua reminded the people of all of the good things which God had done for them.  Then he called them to respond to those good things by faithfully serving God.  I am hoping that you, my readers, can agree with me, and Joshua, that the Lord has done wonderful things for you.  If that is the case, then I will join Joshua in calling on you to faithfully serve God.  Do not associate with the idol worship going on around us.  Do not serve the gods to which so many bow down and serve.  Hold fast to the Lord our God.  Just as there was a price to pay for the Israelites listening to Joshua, there is a price to pay for us if we choose to faithfully serve God.  But, there is a price to pay if you choose to serve the gods of those around us.  So, if you find the price of serving God too high, you must choose which other gods your will serve.  Our world offers many such gods, choose which ones you will serve!  Or, choose to serve the Lord of Lords, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Joshua chose to serve God, I choose to do likewise.  I hope you will join me in my choice, even with the high price which Jesus made clear to us.

Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them. ⁸ But you are to hold fast to the Lord your God, as you have until now.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Joshua 23-24.

We often focus on Joshua’s commitment when he asked the Israelite people to renew their covenant with God.

choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…But as for me, and my household, we will serve the Lord.

And that is a great quote to focus on, Joshua stated that no matter what the group chose, he had chosen to serve God.  We too should be willing to go against the crowd to serve God.  However, Joshua did not have to stand alone.  The people, inspired both by their experience of God’s power and Joshua’s example, also chose to serve the Lord.  They agreed with Joshua’s commitment and said, “We too will serve the Lord, because He is our God.”

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Joshua 23-24.

When Joshua realized that he would soon die, he gathered the people of Israel in order to give a final address to them and renew their commitment to God.  Just as Moses had done in his final address, Joshua recapped the history of the people of Israel, reminding them that the people of Edom were their relatives (I am unsure of how this relates to the rest of Joshua’s address, but thought it seemed noteworthy).  Joshua focused this recap on all that God had done for them.  He reminded them that their conquest of the land did not result from their military prowess, but rather from God’s providence.  Perhaps as important as anything else in this part of Joshua’s address was his reminder that they were not to ally with the people of the land, nor intermarry with them, nor join in the worship of their gods.  I may be reading my own beliefs into this, but Joshua seems to imply that any of these people who wished to join Israel and worship the God of Israel were welcome to do so, but this must be a one-way street: no compromise, no meeting them in the middle.

Having finished his recap of the history of God blessing the people of Israel, Joshua brings up an issue which comes up again and again throughout the Old Testament (and truth to be told even today).  The people of Israel still carried with them gods their ancestors had worshiped back in the land of Ur, and others gods from Egypt and elsewhere.  Joshua told them that it was time to decide once and for all time whom they would serve.  Really, this is a decision which the Church in America must make today.  Will we serve the gods of the people among whom we live? The gods which call on us to sacrifice our children, either through abortion, or genital mutilation.  Or will we serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Each of us needs to answer this question for ourselves, just as Joshua did here.  I pray that each of you reading this will answer as Joshua did, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 23-24.

This is one of several passages where I see an implicit statement that is not quite said outright.  Joshua called on the Israelites to choose what god(s) they would serve going forward.  God was but one of the options which Joshua gave to them.  The unspoken point which Joshua made was that if they chose God and later failed to faithfully serve Him it would be worse for them than if they chose some other god, or god, in the first place.  Which brings me to where I want to go with today’s blog.  At several points throughout modern history, the peoples of various countries which are part of Western Civilization have chosen to serve the God of Israel, often times with poorly formed understanding of what He truly wanted of them.  These acts of dedication have generally resulted in these countries becoming prosperous.  However, sooner or later, the peoples of these countries drifted away from serving God, in even the imperfect way which they started out.  This has always resulted in hardship and difficulty.

I see God’s judgment in the situation of the world today.  Following World War II many people in the countries of Western Civilization saw the evils that had led to that war and dedicated themselves to eradicating them.  That dedication was a dedication to serving God, although many of them had an imperfect understanding of what that meant. However, as time went on, more and more of those people rejected the idea of serving and worshiping God and crisis resulted.  In each of these crisis, a revival occurred and people turned once more to God.  Until we get to today, once more the world is facing a crisis.  This time I see few people turning to God.  I myself have been slow in examining the ways in which I have turned from God.  Because of that, I have failed to use this platform, limited as it is, to call others to turn to God.  Those of us who have previously dedicated ourselves to serving God must recognize that where we have failed to follow through on that dedication has contributed to the rise of this current crisis  We must turn to God and beg His forgiveness.